Date: 1792
"False, indeed, must be the light when the drapery of situation hides the man, and makes him stalk in masquerade, dragging from one scene of dissipation to another the nerveless limbs that hang with stupid listlessness, and rolling round the vacant eye, which plainly tells us that there is no min...
preview | full record— Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797)
Date: 1792
"The imagination becomes a camera obscura, only with this difference, that the camera represents objects as they really are; while the imagination, impressed with the most beautiful scenes, and chastened by rules of art, forms it's pictures, not only from the most admirable parts of nature; but i...
preview | full record— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)
Date: 1792
"The imagination of a painter, really great in his profession, is a magazine abounding with all the elegant forms, and striking effects, which are to be found in nature."
preview | full record— Gilpin, William (1724-1804)
Date: 1793
"Again, the only means by which truth, however immutable in its own nature, can be communicated to the human mind is through the inlet of the senses. It is perhaps impossible that a man shut up in a cabinet can ever be wise"
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Date: 1794
"Every person of learning is finally his own teacher; the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception."
preview | full record— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)
Date: 1795 (w. 1787)
"Words may flatter you, but the countenance never can deceive you; the eyes are the windows of the soul, and through them you are to watch what passes in the inmost recesses of the heart."
preview | full record— Edgeworth, Maria
Date: 1796
"He who feels the spirit in him, will be conscious of possessing the pearl of great price, and will lock it up in the sanctuary of his heart, as his richest treasure, never to be despoiled of it by the seducing arts of false philosophy; never to exchange that pure gold, which is the same yesterda...
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: 1797
"MOMUS, in fabulous history, the god of raillery, or the jester of the celestial assembly, and who ridiculed both gods and men. Being chosen by Vulcan, Neptune, and Minerva, to give his judgment concerning their works, he blamed them all: Neptune for not making his bull with horns before his eyes...
preview | full record— Author Unknown
Date: 1798
"I believe it may be admitted as a maxim, that no person of a well furnished mind, that has shaken off the implicit subjection of youth, and is not the zealous partizan of a sect, can bring himself to conform to the public and regular routine of sermons and prayers."
preview | full record— Godwin, William (1756-1836)